According to the Vice President of Student Services Stephen B. Johnson, he does not see Cerritos College getting involved with the California Senate Bill 320

SB-320 would be providing post-secondary schools with the “abortion by medication techniques,” or the abortion pill.

The legislation states, “This bill would express findings and declarations of the legislature relating to the availability of at on-campus student health centers at public post-secondary educational institutions in the state.”

Even though this bill deals with and prioritizes California universities, other post-secondary educational institutions both public or private will be able be apart of this program if they choose to.

“Universities by their nature have oriented residential facilities,” said Johnson, “so more often than not the health centers in the locations are oriented to provided more care.

“Our [healthcare centers] are immediate and its certain basic things that we do, but we’re not in the position to do certain kinds of things that are more like procedures or might involve potential risks.” he said.

Being that Cerritos College is not a 24-hour facility also plays a factor for the college’s Health and Wellness Center not getting involved with providing abortions by medication techniques.

Another factor is that the Health and Wellness Center is financially support by student health fees.

The bill states, “The treasurer may additionally provide grants to student health centers at other public and private post-secondary educational institutions to pay for direct costs associated with implementing abortion by medication techniques.”

This will not coincide with how the Health and Wellness Center is funded.

“Our operation is entirely fee based and the students health center operates under student fees and that’s the thing with community colleges, so everything over there we have to make decisions and set priorities on what we can do relevant to what the fee provides” said Johnson.

Though the Health and Wellness Center does provide students with information and supplies it is not expected to get on board and be funded by grants if SB-320 were to pass and become legislation according to Johnson.